Q&A
When you’re a writer, being good to yourself often involves setting and meeting writing goals. How do you set realistic goals? What are some tips you can share?
Sometimes being good to yourself involves a warm afghan, a cup of hot tea, and a good noodler romance. Our January new releases are sure to meet your goal of savoring a happy ending.
Delle Jacobs
Aphrodite’s Brew
It’s just an old family recipe for a restorative tonic for women that Sylvia secretly sells to fund her step-daughter's coming Season. But when the Tons most confirmed bachelors begin to elope, the Earl of Vailmont suspects fraud. Fearing he will expose her dabbling in trade or, worse, her weakness for handsome men, Sylvia concocts an old family charm to protect her fragile heart from disaster. But neither logic nor charms can combat the stubborn love that sweeps them into a whirl of unbridled passion. And, from somewhere in the forgotten mists of time, a nameless god is laughing.
Jennie Lucas
Italian Prince, Wedlocked Wife
Single mom Lucy Abbott is working as many hours as she can, but still can barely afford to feed her baby daughter. Then Prince Maximo d'Aquilla offers her millions, and a way out of her desperate life. Max whisks her away to Italy…and soon she's totally his! Max has seduced her completely. But is he driven by revenge, or desire? And is he ruthless enough to walk away from his captive bride?
Merrillee Whren
Mommy’s Hometown Hero
His objective: marriage. His opponent: a stubborn single mom. After ten years, Rachel Charbonneau is finally back in South Dakota. But she intends to sell her family's farm and rush "home" to the city. Ex-solidier Matt Dalton won't let her go without a fight. Well, a secret fight. He can't let her know he's loved her since they were kids. Or that thoughts of her saved him through the worst of times. And Rachel seems scared to tell him the real reason she wants to leave. So, his strategy: arm himself with all the faith and love necessary to be her hometown hero.
Anna DeStefano
“Weekend Meltdown”
Winter Heat
(along with Vicki Lewis Thompson “Weekend Fling” and Jade Lee “Weekend Tigress”)
Unforgettable
For two cynical best friends who believe beginning an affair would be too much of a cliché…until they decide to share a vacation—and a bed!
Unbelievable
For a schoolteacher eager to exchange her schoolmarm nature for that of an insatiable tigress and the undercover agent who knows how to bring out her wild side!
And completely mind-blowing! For a corporate gal looking to shed her office shackles with the one man who can't afford to get carried away…
Sometimes being good to yourself involves a warm afghan, a cup of hot tea, and a good noodler romance. Our January new releases are sure to meet your goal of savoring a happy ending.
Delle Jacobs
Aphrodite’s Brew
It’s just an old family recipe for a restorative tonic for women that Sylvia secretly sells to fund her step-daughter's coming Season. But when the Tons most confirmed bachelors begin to elope, the Earl of Vailmont suspects fraud. Fearing he will expose her dabbling in trade or, worse, her weakness for handsome men, Sylvia concocts an old family charm to protect her fragile heart from disaster. But neither logic nor charms can combat the stubborn love that sweeps them into a whirl of unbridled passion. And, from somewhere in the forgotten mists of time, a nameless god is laughing.
Jennie Lucas
Italian Prince, Wedlocked Wife
Single mom Lucy Abbott is working as many hours as she can, but still can barely afford to feed her baby daughter. Then Prince Maximo d'Aquilla offers her millions, and a way out of her desperate life. Max whisks her away to Italy…and soon she's totally his! Max has seduced her completely. But is he driven by revenge, or desire? And is he ruthless enough to walk away from his captive bride?
Merrillee WhrenMommy’s Hometown Hero
His objective: marriage. His opponent: a stubborn single mom. After ten years, Rachel Charbonneau is finally back in South Dakota. But she intends to sell her family's farm and rush "home" to the city. Ex-solidier Matt Dalton won't let her go without a fight. Well, a secret fight. He can't let her know he's loved her since they were kids. Or that thoughts of her saved him through the worst of times. And Rachel seems scared to tell him the real reason she wants to leave. So, his strategy: arm himself with all the faith and love necessary to be her hometown hero.
Anna DeStefano
“Weekend Meltdown”
Winter Heat
(along with Vicki Lewis Thompson “Weekend Fling” and Jade Lee “Weekend Tigress”)
Unforgettable
For two cynical best friends who believe beginning an affair would be too much of a cliché…until they decide to share a vacation—and a bed!
Unbelievable
For a schoolteacher eager to exchange her schoolmarm nature for that of an insatiable tigress and the undercover agent who knows how to bring out her wild side!
And completely mind-blowing! For a corporate gal looking to shed her office shackles with the one man who can't afford to get carried away…
Labels: Anna DeStefano, Delle Jacobs, Jennie Lucas, Merrillee Whren, setting goals
posted by Mo H @ 6:00 AM
8 Comments:
Keep your goals small and measurable. Don't go with the grandiose dreams which you can't control. You can write a great book. You can't make it show up on the best-seller list. Break down the big goal into small steps.
For me, when I look at a daunting task (like all the paperwork I keep promising I'll organize), I try to break it down to "Do ONE thing" pieces. So, while I'll give up on sorting that box of papers where I move stuff to get it out of the way, I can easily take ONE piece of paper out and put it away. Usually, one thing leads to several, and I've made a dent in the pile.
For writing, it's setting a word count (although I'm cutting and revising now, so my goal is a negative number!)
One of my goals this year is to re-establish the good work habits I had when I first left the day job. One of these will be to establish a set writing time and place. Another will be to get exercise.
I used to begin my writing day at 9 am and break at noon for a trip to Curves. Slowly this has eroded into too much frittering away time.
I'll let you know how I do!
I agree with Terry -- small and measurable. You can also add, separately, some of those big, really-stretching goals, but you have to go into it with the attitude that if you don't reach those, you're not going to feel bad about yourself. The key is challenging yourself without making yourself feel like a failure.
Good point, Trish -- set the bar too low and you don't move forward, but too high and you feel like you've failed.
Even those lofty goals can be broken down into smaller steps, so you feel like you're moving forward.
Terry and Trish,
I agree on making those small steps, like writing every day even if it's only 15 minutes. If I make too big of a goal, I DO feel guilty if I don't hit it. :)
Diane,
Good luck on reestablishing a routine. I am so looking forward to school starting again, so I can get back to mine!
A note on Aphrodite's Brew: It won't be released in print until the very end of the month. But the cool thing is it's available for pre-order at a very reduced price at both Tower Books online and Amazon. I love pre-orders! They can really bump up sales numbers for that critical first week, so whenever possible I pre-order my friends' books.
Goals: I think the best thing I've done for myself is to distinguish between goals and dreams. I've probably said this a few times... like my dad, I'm repeating stories and "wisdom" more and more...
Goals equal what I think I can reasonably accomplish is a set amount of time, and in the shortest run, the day, I make To-Do lists of what I want to accomplish. I also keep a second running list of things I want to do or need to do in a longer period of time.
Dreams, on the other hand, are the reaching-for-the-stars things. I know they're bigger than life, and that's what I aim for. I believe in aiming higher than I can reach, knowing it's the struggle to reach the stars that counts more than actually getting there.
That could be another way of looking at it. The object of goals is getting there. The object of dreams is the journey.
I am anxious for school to start as well so I can have a regular routine again.
Last year, I made a spread sheet for the month to month goals. One column was for Family and the second was for Writing. I had to do it as we had a major move coming up and it helped me focus tremendously. It gave me a great sense of satisfaction to see every item I managed to check off and accomplish in both columns. This year I will do the same. Not all the goals were met (usually writing contests / finishing the revision got pushed back a few times), but more did than not.
I also sat down and wrote goals and plans for 2008--a general list as a guide so I'd know how to break it into smaller pieces.
I love lists and checking off the items accomplished. These methods described work best for me.
I like what Delle Jacobs said about the difference between goals and dreams. If it's okay, I'm going to make that a quote for me and hang it in my computer cubby.
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